Posts Tagged ‘legalize’

Something truly historic just happened, and I’m very excited to share the news with you: Uruguay’s national legislature just voted to make their country the first in the world to legalize marijuana!

Since prohibition first reared its ugly head a century ago, no nation has ever before moved to re-legalize marijuana and bring the trade aboveground and out of the hands of drug cartels and gangs that control the illegal market.

As you know, the states of Colorado and Washington voted last year to become the first jurisdictions on the planet to legalize marijuana. Now an entire country is doing so. Legal sales of marijuana to adults in Colorado and Washington will begin in early 2014, and once Uruguayan President Jose Mujica — a vocal legalization supporter — signs the new bill into law, his government will move forward with plans to start selling marijuana to its own citizens.

Next year, several additional U.S. states are likely to vote on legalization, and even more will follow in 2016. A recent Gallup poll just found that 58% of all Americans want to end marijuana prohibition.

A new poll suggests Canada may have reached the tipping point and a 66-per-cent majority favours legalizing marijuana.

Hallelujah! Finally we might get a sensible public policy discussion in this country about what to do about a relatively benign substance that has been demonized and outlawed for a century yet is as readily available in schoolyards as cigarettes.

The prohibition and a 40-year-long “War on Drugs” have led to pot being more widely accessible, taxpayers considerably poorer, gangs richer and thousands upon thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens branded “criminal.”

Another 50,000 or so Canadians are busted every year for possession; throw in 20,000 or so traffickers and producers and this so-called war is costing us as much as $400 million annually in law enforcement, court and corrections.

Bearing in mind a million dollars a year buys roughly 12 new cops, 14 teachers or public health nurses, ask yourself: Couldn’t all that money be better spent?

The federal Liberal party obviously thinks so – 77 per cent of delegates at the weekend convention voted to legalize the herb, echoing the Senate special committee on illegal drugs (chaired by a Conservative), which 10 years ago urged the government to free the weed. Four decades ago, the LeDain Commission similarly called for an end to the criminal prohibition of cannabis.

With 14 states and the District of Colombia allowing the legal medical use of marijuana, acceptance of the issue is steadily growing in America. A new poll shows that 57 percent of Floridians support legalization of medical marijuana as buzz grows that the issue could be placed on the ballot as soon as 2012.Bob Norman reports that the poll was conducted by Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates, a Republican firm that worked with Rick Scott’s gubernatorial campaign. The pollsters asked point blank: “If there was a Constitutional Amendment on the statewide ballot to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes only when prescribed by a practicing physician and the election were held today, would you vote YES to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes or NO to stop it?”

57 percent said they would vote YES (roughly 41 percent said they definitely would, and about 17 percent said they probably would). A recent ABC News poll found that across the nation 81 percent of voters support medical marijuana. It’s possible that this poll may even be conservative in estimating support.

Norman reports that such an amendment could come to the ballot in 2012, but 60 percent of voters would need to check yes for such a measure to pass.

While there wasn’t a big statistical difference based on gender and race, slightly more woman were supportive of the measure than men. 59 percent of white voters and 58 percent of Hispanics would vote yes, while only 55 percent of black voters would.

Voters in Miami would support the measure at 58 percent, but West Palm has the biggest munchies for medical marijuana with 73 percent. 79 percent of voters 18 to 24 would vote yes, while even a majority of voters 65 and up are supportive of the measure with 53 percent support.

More than half of British Columbians support the legalization of marijuana, but the prairie provinces are even more pot-friendly, according to a new poll.

In the latest Angus Reid Public Opinion poll on drugs, 50 per cent of Canadians said they want to see marijuana legalized, while 44 per cent oppose decriminalization.

People in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were most likely to want legal pot, with 61 per cent of those polled expressing their support. Fifty-four per cent of British Columbians surveyed said they want to see marijuana legalized.

Albertans were the least likely to support legalizing pot, with only 45 per cent in support.

Only 33 per cent of Canadians said they want to toss the decriminalization legislation introduced by the previous Liberal government. But the majority said they support the federal government’s proposal for a national anti-drug strategy and mandatory minimum jail sentences for grow operators and drug dealers.

Despite the strong support countrywide for legal marijuana, about 90 per cent of Canadians opposed legalizing harder drugs like ecstasy, heroin and cocaine.

Still, about half of respondents said they disagreed with the Conservative government’s efforts to end harm reduction programs like supervised injection sites and needle-exchange programs.

People in B.C. were much more likely than most Canadians to say that the country has a serious drug abuse problem affecting the entire country, with 46 per cent agreeing compared to a national average of 37 per cent.

The results of the latest poll are consistent with similar surveys conducted in April of this year and in May 2008.

The latest survey was conducted online and polled 1,000 randomly selected people. The margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

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